Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan

Khalid Kheshgi

Former NWFP chief minister, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan has achieved the singular honour of being the only politician from the province having berths in the Senate as well as national and provincial assemblies.

Sardar Mehtab is also credited with winning both the national and provincial assembly seats for the fourth time from Abbottabad, his home constituency, wherefrom he secured his NA-17 and PF-45 seats in the February 18, 2008 elections.

As a constitutional requirement, he had to abandon one of the seats and resign from the Senate before taking oath as member of the National Assembly.

Sardar Mehtab says he decided to abandon the NWFP Assembly seat and resign from the Senate ahead of taking oath as member of the National Assembly. “Of course, it is a great honour for me, for my party and for my electorate to get elected to provincial assembly and National Assembly for the fourth time,” he says.

The PML-N also nominated him as federal minister from Frontier province. Born on January 13, 1953, Sardar Mehtab entered the electoral politics in 1985 when he contested the party-less election and was elected to the NWFP Assembly. He was taken in Arbab Jehangir-led government as provincial minister in 1986.

In 1988, he was elected to the Frontier Assembly as independent candidate and was the only MPA who joined the opposition by his own choice at that time.

In 1990, he won both the national and provincial assembly seats and opted for National Assembly where he was made federal minister in the Nawaz Sharif government.

In 1993, Sardar Mehtab was again elected to the provincial assembly and National Assembly while in 1997 general elections he was honoured by his electorate to be the member of national and NWFP Assembly where he opted for provincial assembly and was elected as chief minister of the province.

After October 12, 1999 when the Nawaz Sharif government was toppled in a military coup, Sardar Mehtab was sent behind the bars under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance. He remained interned nearly for three years and did not contest 2002 election but in 2003 Senate election he was elected to the Senate on the PML-N ticket.